Anonymous Browsing : Using ProxyChains

This is one of the ways I use to view some links which are currently blocked by my ISP.

I do all the restricted browsing using Kali Linux. I hope you have heard of this version, you can find more info about this OS >> Here . It is an interesting playground and is bundled with extensive tools which can be used to "explore" the world around you... well be careful while exploring though ;-)

My System :

• Host Machine : MacBook Air
• Host OS  : OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)
• Guest OS : Kali GNU/Linux
• VM Software : Virtual Box 4.3

Configuring ProxyChains :

1. ProxyChains work on TOR (Details about TOR : Here ) so you need to check if tor is currently installed and running on the system. There are several ways to do it , 1- 
• Check if the tor file exists : ls -l /etc/init.d/tor
• Run this command and see if you you see any active listening ports : 
• netstat -tanp |grep tor
2. If ProxyChains is not available, you will have to install the package using the below command:
• apt-get install tor
3. Once it is installed, you will have to start the service using the command below :
• /etc/init.d/tor start
4. Now you have to check if this has been started properly, and to confirm the port on which it has started. For that you have to re-use the command "netstat -tanp |grep tor", normally this service starts on port 9050
   
5. Now once you have TOR all set, some configurations you might want to consider for using proxychains :
1. open the proxychains.conf : vi /etc/proxychains.conf
2. Unhash dynamic_chain and random_chain parameters
3. add new socks4/socks5 proxies, you can get a list from : Here
4. Make sure you do not remove the loopback address from the proxy list, and the TOR port should be same as the port here
5. Save and close the file
6. Now open Firefox, change the proxy settings to 127.0.0.1 and port 9050, save and close
7. Testing : Open the site www.cmyip.com, you will now be hidden behind some other ip. If it still shows your public IP, there is a problem with your configuration.
8. Testing : From command line , give the command as below -
1. proxychains firefox www.cmyip.com , it will show you some other IP. (e.g as the snapshot below, I am not in Netherlands for sure :-D)

Another one, pointing to swiss.. 

I suppose the settings would be the same for other distributions of linux, happy to help if any concerns.